NEFCO to finance investments in municipal energy efficiency projects Ukrainian cities of Vinnytsia and Zhytomyr

Helsinki, Finland, 22-10-2013 — /EuropaWire/ — The Ukrainian cities of Vinnytsia and Zhytomyr have signed loan agreements with NEFCO to finance investments in municipal energy efficiency measures. The agreements were signed today at the Ukrainian Ministry of Regional Development, Construction and Municipal Economy.

The energy efficiency projects are managed and financed under a funding Facility called DemoUkrainaDH, combining grant funding provided by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) with a loan from NEFCO. DemoUkrainaDH aims at implementing a range of municipal district heating projects in 20 cities in Ukraine. Environment, including energy efficiency, is one of two key areas and priorities for the Swedish development cooperation with Ukraine. The Eastern European Energy Efficiency and Environment Partnership (E5P), to which the EU, Sweden and several other major donors are fund providers, has also supported the Facility by providing consultancy services for project preparation.

The projects in Vinnytsia and Zhytomyr will focus at renovation of boiler houses as well as installation of individual heat substations, heat pumps and new condensation boilers. Furthermore, the district heating piping network will be replaced with new pre-insulated pipes to minimise heat losses.

The project measures are expected to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by nearly 1,200 tonnes per year. On top of this, the municipalities will save almost 700,000 cubic metres of gas annually and this in turn will generate savings worth some EUR 214,000 per year as a result of reduced consumption of heat energy.

“We are very pleased with the fact that the projects in Vinnytsia and Zhytomyr are moving forward and we hope that this will inspire other cities to follow their example”, says Senior Adviser Johan Willert from NEFCO.

Ukraine has a huge potential to save energy and the government has estimated that some 50 per cent of the energy consumed in the country could be saved by investing in energy efficiency technologies in the industrial and municipal sectors. The International Energy Agency (IEA) maintains that energy efficiency represents Ukraine’s best opportunity to improve its energy security.
NEFCO is an international financial institution owned by the five Nordic countries. NEFCO mainly finances environmentally-related projects and investments in Russia, Ukraine, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus and Moldova in order to generate positive environmental benefits for the Nordic region. At present, the funds administered by the corporation are valued at some EUR 549 million.

For more information, please contact:

Julia Shevchuk, Chief Investment Adviser, mobile: +380 50 358 3518 (for interviews in Ukrainian and Russian)

Johan Willert, Senior Adviser, +358 50 400 8528 (for interviews in English)

Note to Editors: The procurement documents related to the upcoming projects in Vinnytsia and Zhytomyr will be published on DemoUkrainaDH’s web site in the coming weeks.

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